...what turning 12 looks like.

The cake was delicious. The kid was excited. And another year has passed.

I really cannot believe that Aislinn is 12 now. She looks like she's 15 mind you and although I'm loathe to say it...she's only about an inch or so shorter than me now. And not to mention her 9.5 size feet!!!! My God that kid has huge feet!

When did she go from this...


To this?


I think every parent looks at their kid and thinks..."when the hell did that happen? And where was I?"

Aislinn awoke to a floor covered in balloons...and Mom went to sleep with sore thumbs from tying them. But it was worth every cuss word I muttered to see her happy face in the morning.


To celebrate the day we all decided to go golfing. It wasn't pretty.





It actually looked more like lawn bowling for the most part. The only one who knew what he was doing was Frank. But we had fun and no one was around to laugh at us, which I consider to be the most important part about golfing.

And then we headed out to The Keg for prime rib and crab. And a big ole blackberry martini for Mom! Golf is thirsty work, people!



After that, it was home for birthday cake and presents.


Blow hard, Aislinn!

...how to get rid of rodents...a step by step guide.

Hello everyone. From the title you can tell that we recently have had some unwelcomed guests (UWG) in our home.

It started quite innocently. We started hearing this faint scratching noise in the ceiling in our dining area.

UWG: scratch, scratch..... scratchscratchscratch.....*silence*

Tanya or Frank: "Did you hear that? What is that?"

UWG: scratch, scratch, SCRATCH!

Tanya or Frank: "I heard that! What the heck is it? Bang on the ceiling!" BANG BANG BANGBANGBANGBANG... "I think its gone."

UWG: scratch?...scratch?....SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH!

Tanya or Frank: BANG BANG BANG!!!!

UWG: *silence*

Frank: *pulling out the ladder and placing it in the bathroom to gain access to the trapdoor to the attic* "I'm going to go look up there.

Tanya: "Can I come?!.... Ewwwww! Its all dusty and gross up there. I'm staying here."

Frank: "I can't see anything. I'm coming down."

Kids: "Canisee? Canisee? Canisee?"

Frank and Tanya: "There's nothing up there. Fine, go look. I told you...nothing to see."

We left the ladder in the bathroom and left the trapdoor open. It was kinda weird having a hole in your bathroom ceiling.

UWG: Scratchscratchscratchscratch! SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH!!! *getting louder and more insistent.

Frank and Tanya: "okay that does it. Let's go get some traps!"

at Rona: which trap? what about poison? What are we dealing with? Mice? Its gotta be mice. "Here, Frank, buy these ridiculously expensive mouse traps that are much better than the old regular mouse traps that my Mom used back on the farm."

Frank: *back up in the attic* "Okay, done...now we wait."

THE NEXT MORNING....

Frank: "They're gone!"

Tanya: "What!?! What do you mean they're gone?"

Frank: "Our ridiculously expensive mousetraps are gone! I can't find them."

UWG: SCRATCHSCRATCHSCRATCHSCRATCH!!!!

Frank and Tanya: *$%#%#(@)*&$?!

Tanya: "OMG! Frank....I know what's up there. When I was drying off after my shower I heard some scratching and looked up into the trapdoor and sitting up there on a beam right beside that hole in our roof...(for ventilation) there was a freakin' squirrel sitting there!!!!!" "Yes I climbed up the ladder all naked and started screaming and banging to scare it away. It looked at me for a bit before it ran out that hole. This is what we have to do.....*whisper whisper whisper*

We had to whisper because the squirrel could have been listening.

Frank: *returning from Canadian Tire with our supplies* "Okay, let me get ready to do battle!"


Tanya: "you are such a dork"

Frank: "do you want to go fight the squirrel?"

Tanya: "its a SQUIRREL! Not a grizzly!"



Frank: "Whatever. Just hand me the chicken wire and the stapler. I'm going to seal off that hole." .... "AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! Its trying to get in! OH CRAP!!!!! I think its trying to bite me! Get that hockey stick and poke it....you bastard!!!!! Its mad! Really mad!"

Tanya: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! *I tend to laugh at things when they are absolutely hilarious and I'm not really involved*

Frank: "stop laughing and help me...warn me if it comes back"

Tanya: "Oh sh*%!!! Its coming back! GETMEOUTTAHERE!"

Frank: "Thanks for your help....not....anyways, the hole is sealed up and that damn squirrel is pissed. I'm going to go outside on the roof and put some chicken wire up on the outside just to make sure.

Frank and kids: "that damn squirrel is crazy! It sits there and watches us and when we walk close it hisses and charges us. I need you to stand on a chair outside on the deck and warm me if it comes close while I'm on the roof. Yes...I have a hockey stick to hit it with if it comes close."

Tanya: "OMG!!!! Its coming!!! Its coming!!!! WATCH OUT!!!!"

Frank: "AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! *swinging his hockey stick wildly and running away*

Tanya: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

FOR THE REST OF THE DAY...

That crazy, pissed-off squirrel was running around our property attacking anyone that came close and trying to find a way back into the attic. At one point, it had pinned down Aislinn who had gone to the basement to get something. She was down there calling for help and wouldn't come out until Frank went and got her.

We managed to keep that squirrel out for 1 day.

They next day Frank saw her jump off the cedar tree by our front door, climb up our screen on our bay window and shimmy through a tiny crack. The kids and I could sit on our couch and watch as that crazy squirrel visited her 4 babies. They would look at us as we looked at them.



The next day...they were gone. No more scratching.

THE END

...about PUPPIES!!!!!

So, the family and I took a trip back to Prince George for Mother's Day. It was a whirlwind trip in our little orange car. Tuck was very concerned that we weren't going to take him. We tried to explain to him that he didn't have to worry, that we had every intention of bringing him along, but you try to explain that to him...he wouldn't get out of the car.

We reached Prince at about 10pm on Friday night and we left to drive back home at 1:30pm on Sunday. That meant we had approximately a day and a half to accomplish the following....

Go to my nieces' and nephew's soccer games.

Visit Rachel and Joel at their ranch...and play with Puppies!!!!!!

Go for a run while at the ranch.

Take all the kids to the pool.

Make sure they don't drown.

Go out and dance.

Get up and make Mother's Day homemade crepes with strawberries and whipped cream.

Go to Grandma's house and help her dig up her garden, mow her lawn, trim her hedges, and take down her storm windows.

Whew! I told you...whirlwind. We were exhausted when we got back.

But, back to the puppies!

Awwww!

So Cute!!!!

"I want this one! Can we take him home? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeease!!!!!"

Actually, the fluffy brown one? He is being adopted...but not by us...but he is staying in the family. He will soon be going home with Frank's younger brother, Walter, and his family. Cool huh? I wonder what they'll name him.

Okay, bedtime.

Later!

...hey! Auria already updated her blog!

So, after I copied and pasted Auria's email I went to her blog to post a comment directing people to my blog to read her email and found her awesome update! I highly highly recommend you check out her blog. She has a bunch of pictures and some great stories about Hong Kong. If you go to right side of my blog and go to the section that has the Blogs that I follow, you will see Auria's blog "The Noodle Diaries".

Check it out!

...missives from China.

Hello Friends and Family,

I am copying and pasting an email I received from the fair Auria. She is currently travelling with my little brother, Darren, in China for 6 months. She wanted to write her own travel blog about their adventures but she is having trouble accessing it - those darn chinese censors!

Anyways, until she figures out another solution, I am going to re-post her emails on my blog so everyone can keep up with their travels.

Read on!


In Hangzhou‏
From:
Auria Wickham (auriawickham@msn.com)
Sent:
May 4, 2010 11:17:57 AM


So, looks like those updates I promised might be harder to manage than I thought. Not sure if it's the Chinese filter or just a connection problem, but I can't seem to log onto Blogger or onto Facebook... but I can e-mail so this may have to suffice. Also, please forward this to any family I missed (Ting and Ayla).

So we made it to Hangzhou safe and sound, for the most part. Darren and I were glad to leave Hong Kong. While it's an amazing city, it's also very busy, and I think we were both seeking a little bit of quiet. What I did love about Hong Kong and what I'm beginning to appreciate more every moment, is how easy it was to be independant in that city. I told Darren that I was happy we started in HK because the remnants of British colonialism really made that place a hybrid of Western and Chinese culture... I was so wrong. It wasn't so much a hybrid as just Western. In HK, everything is in English, and at least one person at most larger businesses spoke English. At the smaller venders, they at least knew enough to make a sale. Signs are in English, directions are in English... it wasn't so much China as it really was/is Western. Needless to say, Darren and I now feel like we really are in another country.

My first point of mention is how loud people are in Mainland China. As soon as we got on the plane we noticed it. Not just talking loud, which they do, but yawning loud, grunting loud, hawking up flem loudly, and chewing loudly! Oh the chewing! It is going to be a true test of my patience to sit in a Chinese restaurant I think. There is no sound in the world that annoys me more!

The second thing we noticed were the "hawkers". My guidebook mentioned that people would come up to us in the airport and offer taxi rides. According to my guidebook, these are "black cabs" (essentially black market taxis) and should not be solicited. Well... there were so many of these people running around the airport, at least one for every one or two travellers.

The next thing we noticed was the lack of English on signs. The airport had a few, but as we ventured further to the exits, the English translations began to deplete. We were looking for the airport shuttle, which we found a sign for, but the ticket counter was certainly absent of English. The lady selling the tickets didn't seem to speak any English either. We basically attempted to tell her what we wanted, and bought two tickets, to where, we weren't really sure. Then we proceeded to get onto a bus, which we weren't even sure was the right bus. We tried to ask the lady taking the tickets but she just spoke Mandarin and then giggled at the inability of anyone to understand eachother. We then got off the bus, not knowing for sure if it was the right stop, and had to ask a hotel concierge to help us find our Hostel/Hotel. She had to find someone else to help write the address in characters for a cab driver, who knew which street to drive to, but not where the Hotel/Hostel was. Once we did find our hotel, our reservation was no where to be found.

People here however, are kind and helpful. Not only did the hotel concierge help us find our hotel (which obviously wasn't her's), but one of the guests at our hotel saw our Canadian badges as we were talking to the front desk, and offered to act as a translator and help us sort out our missing reservation. Needless to say, Mainland China certainly feels very foreign. Communication is going to be a huge issue, but we are prepared to stare, and be stared at, mindlessly.

So, possibly for the next month or so, this will have to do for "blogging". Tanya or Ting, maybe we can work something out so one of you can copy and paste posts for me? We'll see if I can eventually access the Blogger website.

For now, Vinni, please let mom know I made it to Hangzhou and that Darren and I are fine. I will try to call you guys in a few days possibly. Everyone else, hope you're well and I'll try, one way or another, to keep you guys up to date!

Love Darren and Auria

"LIFE HAPPENS"